New Palms on the Block

In the last couple of weeks, some new plants have come to the Robert Irwin-designed palm garden, and a few others have been rearranged. For those of you unfamiliar with the project, a little background—prior to the opening of BCAM, LACMA commissioned Irwin to create an installation of palm trees that serve as a living art display and define the park areas of LACMA’s campus. As part of this project, which will continue to be developed over the next few years, Irwin systematically curated a grouping of exotic and tropical palm species from across the globe. Here are a few photos of the new kids on the block.

Director of Special Installations John Bowsher told me the Johannesteijsmannia Altfrons palm used to be reserved for nobility. Its fronds were used as umbrellas.

This palm, Licuala Ramsayi, native to the northern region of Australia, is actually an old friend. It resided in this space when BCAM opened, went to the greenhouse for awhile, and is now back.

Not all palms can survive “the wind corner”—the open space between BCAM and LACMA West—but this variety of palm, Pritchardia Hildebrandii, should do well. The palms actually align with the sidewalk you see on the other side of the fence and with the two rows of Washingtonia Robusta.

The center fern in this image is our most rare. It is fifty to sixty years old and not easy to come by at this ripe age.

This variety, Kentya, is John’s favorite palm. He likes the trunk and the gracefully arched leaves.

This Bismarckia Nobilis is my favorite palm. I love the silvery blue color. (John says this is why Irwin also likes this palm.)

Along with the palms, Irwin’s other medium is Southern California’s light, and the species of palms have been specially chosen to gather and reflect the interplay of light and shadow native to L.A. That interplay was really evident here as John and I returned to our offices.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Why is the museum keeping so many of those palm trees in the wood crates, with the steel bands around them? That’s far too deconstructionist or “hip” (or casual or, simply put, cheap-looking) for my tastes.

I bet the average visitor to LACMA sees that aspect of the landscaping and believes the museum is on such a tight budget that in order to fill in the barren spaces around the Eli Broad wing, it’s forced to borrow plants from the local nursery. If many guests to the museum, in fact, do interpret things that way, please don’t take their condescension lightly or for granted. The museum already has gotten a big enough black eye due to the controversy of the planned closure of its film series.